1. Statement of the Technical Field
The invention concerns cryptographic systems. More particularly, the invention concerns a high-speed cryptographic system utilizing digitally generated chaotic sequences.
2. Description of the Related Art
For many types of electronic records, such as medical records, email communications, credit cards records, and customer records, data is generally stored in unencrypted databases. Although numerous linear and non-linear cryptographic algorithms exist, such algorithms are typically not used for database encryption due to the latency issues, processing requirements, and/or security limitations.
In the case of database cryptographic systems using linear algorithms, the non-computation intensive nature of the encryption and decryption processes allow a user to quickly and efficiently decrypt one or more portions of the encrypted database. However, the linear nature of the encryption algorithm (i.e., non-complex) also means that the encryption scheme can be discovered within a reasonable time, allowing third parties access to the encrypted data. As a result, linear encryption algorithms are typically not suited for providing robust security to a determined cryptographer.
In contrast, non-linear encryption algorithms typically rely on a mathematical problem for which no efficient means of obtaining a solution is available and typically provide secure encryption. However, the complex nature of the non-linear algorithm also means that a computation intensive decryption process is typically required to decrypt even the smallest collection of data. More importantly, the nonlinear processes typically fail to permit decryption of an arbitrary portion of the data, requiring decryption of large amounts of data even when only a small portion of the plaintext is required. Accordingly, such algorithms are generally limited to low data rate transfer applications, such as text messaging or particularly high value information.
For example, multiple pseudo-random number generators can generate exceedingly complex pseudo-random sequences for encoding databases. However, such cryptographic systems generally produce complex pseudo-random number sequences that still possess statistical artifacts. Accordingly, such pseudo-random sequences typically require generation of the full sequence in order to decrypt any portion of an encrypted data store. Furthermore, the sequences are typically difficult to unravel and exploit as the mappings become more complex; the encryption process and decryption process are typically asymmetric, placing a computational burden on one side of the process. A desirable cryptographic system for large stores of data will have symmetric computational requirements as well as common processing components. As a result the latency and computing requirements for such encrypted data stores generally becomes prohibitive as the size of the data store is increased.
As a result of the limitations of linear and non-linear encryption algorithms, many data stores are typically retained using little or no amount of encryption. Therefore, there is a need for a high-speed cryptographic system with moderate security for encryption of large stores and transfers of data as present in databases, email, medical records, or internet transfers. There is also a need for such cryptographic systems to have reduced latency and computing requirements when decrypting only a portion of the data. Additionally, there is a desire that the computational requirements and/or components used in encrypting and decrypting the information be relatively symmetric.